"YosemiteSam" wrote in message
...

Howdy all,

Here's my Joe Electrician story

Have electric basebd heat with wall thermostats, none of which have an
Off setting. (house 40 yrs old)

I want to replace the wall controls with units that have an Off
setting. Reason, two rooms are kept turned down as low as the dial
will go, but can still hear a hum coming from both basebds during cold
months. That's the why I'm doing this, to stop the flow of current at
the thermostat.

Now, I now know I have single-pole therms and the ones with Off
setting are dual-pole, which have four wires instead of two.

Therein lies my problem, I can put back wiring I take apart if it's
the same, but since my knowledge of electrical wiring is on par with
my ability to outwit that wascally wabbit and I don't want to burn the
house down, which of the four wires from the thermostat go to the two
black wires in the junction box?

The dual-pole therms have two red and two black wires. It appears a
red and a black go to each ploe, is this correct? Which of the two
black wires in the connectorbox is the "hot" wire?

....on the safety issue of this project....I do know to flip the MAIN
breaker to OFF while doing my best impression of Tim the Toolman.

'preciate any help, thanks

YS

It shouldn't matter which wire in the box is which. On the thermostat, 2
wires should be marked "line" and 2 should be marked "load". Splice the two
line wires together with one wire from the box, and splice the 2 load wires
together with the other wire from the box. By doing this you're using both
poles of the switch as a single pole, utilizing the full amperage rating of
the thermostat